"Anti Evolution" Bills

"Anti Evolution" Bills have been introduced in four US States, according to AAAS Policy Alerts, 24 January 2011, 7 February 2011, 24 February 2011. The states of Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee and New Mexico have introduced bills into state legislatures that protect teachers from being penalised for allowing students to, "understand, analyse, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories" on such topics including "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning." In each report the American Association for the Advancement of Science has described these bills as "Anti-evolution".

Editorial Comment: The leaders of AAAS seem to have forgotten that understanding, analysing, critiquing and reviewing are the very processes that advance science and teach students how to think about scientific ideas. To allow such processes is not "anti" any idea. By calling these bills "anti-evolution" AAAS reveal their fear that the theory of evolution might not stand up to honest scrutiny if the normal processes of scientific analysis were allowed. (Ref. politics, law, philosophy, scientific method)